10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Cook is a fitness enthusiast and enjoys hiking, cycling, and going to the gym. He regularly begins sending emails at 4.30am and used to hold Sunday night staff meetings by telephone to prepare for the next week.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Paul Jacobs received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1984, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1989 from the University of California, Berkeley.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Otellini joined Intel in 1974. From 1998 to 2002, he was executive vice-president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, responsible for the company's microprocessor and chipset businesses and strategies for desktop, mobile and enterprise computing.

From 1996 to 1998, Otellini served as executive vice-president of sales and marketing and from 1994 to 1996 as senior vice-president and general manager of sales and marketing.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Paul Maritz is CEO of VMware Corporation, and a past senior executive at Microsoft. Born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), his family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

From 1986 to 2000 he worked at Microsoft, leaving as executive vice-president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group and part of the five-person executive management team.

He was often said to be the third-ranking executive, behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He was responsible for essentially all of Microsoft's desktop and server software, including such major initiatives as the development of Windows 95, Windows NT, and Internet Explorer.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Hesse's father was a career army officer and he spent his early years going from army base to army base attending eight different schools between kindergarten in Italy before graduating Stuttgart American High School.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

He received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in government and international studies in 1975; an MBA from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; and master's of science from the MIT Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow.

10 most-liked CEOs in the tech world

Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after making a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle, writing up the Amazon business plan on the way.

He initially set up the company in his garage. He had left his "well-paying job" at a New York City hedge fund when he "learned about the rapid growth in Internet use", which coincided with a "then-new US Supreme Court ruling [that] online retailers don't have to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence"; he had headed to Washington's because its relatively small population meant fewer of his future customers would have to pay sales tax.